Freeholder candidates answer question about bail reform

Freeholder candidates answer question about bail reform

Candidates running for the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders will answer a weekly question posed by The New Jersey Herald on Fridays between now and the June 6 primary election. Questions will be posed to state Senate candidates on Mondays and Assembly candidates on Tuesdays. Republican and Democratic candidates are in the order they will appear on the ballot.

Sussex County freeholder candidates — Topic: Bail reform

The new bail reform will eventually reduce the county jail population. What steps can the county freeholder board take to protect the taxpayer from spending more money on the county jail than is absolutely necessary?

The answer of Ailish Hambel, R is:

It is my understanding that bail reform will continue to evolve and some of the incarceration requirements may change. I understand and agree with the reasoning why bail reform was instituted. What I don’t agree with is releasing violent, repetitive offenders that have shown they will re-offend.

Bail reform began in January 2017. It’s too early to predict if our county jail population will in fact reduce. Should this occur, as freeholder, I would want to make sure that the ratio of correction officers at the jail is appropriate to the population that exists. Should the population dramatically decrease, which I am not so sure it will, then we may have to explore some shared service agreement with another county to potentially house our inmates.

Again, it is too early to tell exactly how bail reform will affect populations at county jails, especially if there are changes to the scoring on who will be incarcerated.